City Market's future still in the air after a year of talks

As the Charlottesville City Market finishes another season, the debate over its future continues after economic development officials pushed back against a recommendation that the city commit to keeping the market in its current location.

The farmers market will open in the same spot in the spring, but its long-term future remains unclear after a year of much discussion but few conclusive decisions.

A task force appointed by the City Council recommended in July that the city make the current site — a downtown parking lot off Water Street — into a permanent home for the market, but some in City Hall say the location is ripe for development that could bring in far more tax dollars.

“To leave the market ‘as-is’ in its current location indefinitely does a disservice to the market and to the ongoing development of the city,” reads a memo to City Manager Maurice Jones written by Chris Engel, the city’s assistant director of economic development. “The market is significantly constrained by the existing space, thereby creating operating challenges. If expansion of vendor spaces and creation of basic amenities are of importance, the current location leaves few viable options. Furthermore, with the market continuing operation onsite, private-sector developers will remain uncertain as to the future and less interested in pursuing a coordinated effort to develop both blocks simultaneously.”

The memo lays out the financial impact to the city in three different development scenarios for the city-owned lot and two adjacent lots under private ownership. If the market were to remain as-is, the city would take in $115,000 annually, a combination of taxes on market sales, real estate tax and parking revenue.

If the site were developed according to the winning concept from the 2007 Market Value Design Competition — a six-floor, 270,000-square-foot residential and commercial development — the space would bring the city $990,000 per year in revenue, mostly from real-estate tax.

If the lots were developed according to a plan envisioned by a prospective developer in 2005 — a nine-floor, 480,000-square-foot development incorporating retail, restaurant, hotel and residential space — the site would bring the city a little more than $2 million per year in tax revenue.

The City Market, open every Saturday from April through November, has been held in the lot between Water and South streets since 1993, though the current spot was intended to be temporary. A task force spent six months studying new locations over the first half of the year, and recommended in July that the city keep the market in place for three years to allow further study of making the site a permanent anchor for a broader “market district” similar to Washington, D.C.’s Eastern Market. The proposal envisions the market expanding to the adjacent parking lot currently owned by Charlottesville Parking Center.

City officials said at the time that they would conduct a feasibility study, which they estimated would be completed this fall. On Monday, the City Council was given an update on the market, but took no vote after Parks & Recreation Director Brian Daly said further research is needed to determine whether the region can support a market district.

At Monday’s meeting, Engel told councilors the market-district concept is “a bit nebulous,” adding that a vision of a market that’s open seven days a week in an air-conditioned building is a far cry from the market that exists today.

“There’s a lot of difference between those two,” Engel said. “A significant amount of time and development would need to occur to truly get to the market-district concept.”

Engel’s memo casts further doubt on the market district as a primary focus, saying that the Water Street lots comprise some of the most valuable real estate in the city and lack a significant historic structure that could form the centerpiece of a market district. The memo also points out that the downtown area is thriving despite the economic downturn, with vacancy rates below 5 percent.

“We are confident in suggesting that sufficient interest and demand exist to cause a major mixed-use development to occur on these lots once financial conditions and the real estate market begin to improve,” the memo reads. “Therefore, we believe it is in the best long-term interest of the city to pursue significant mixed-use development as the primary focus for the city-owned portion of this property.”

Engel said it may be possible to incorporate a smaller, open-air market into a development plan as a “secondary focus.”

Councilor David Brown, who’s stepping down from the position at the end of this year, worried that the city might be taking a “narrow view” of the benefits of a market district, because it’s difficult to capture the market’s role in making downtown a desirable place to live. Brown said that the previous development plans for the site were “somewhat appalling,” and could detract from the pedestrian-friendliness and connectivity of downtown.

“It’s much easier to do this when you’re getting off City Council, to say maybe you guys should bite the bullet and support the market downtown,” Brown said.

Mayor Dave Norris agreed with Brown, but he said the market-district concept likely won’t work unless it involves all the Water Street lots.

“You can’t have a market district on a tiny little postage stamp of a parking lot,” Norris said.

Bob Stroh, the general manager of Charlottesville Parking Center who also serves as co-chair of the Downtown Business Association of Charlottesville, said his company has been involved in city discussions about the market for 10 years.

“We’ve been in conversation with them pretty much forever, but we’ve had no direct proposals, nothing specific,” Stroh said. “It’s always been concept and design.”

Stroh said he’d love to see some positive change happen with the market, but he’s not sure what that would look like, and he’s seen no evidence that the region can support something like a full-blown market district.

“We’ve seen no study. We haven’t seen anybody do the research to find out if a market exists [for a market district],” Stroh said. “Until we do that, all we’re working off of is anecdotal evidence.”

The standard City Market officially ended in late November, but the Holiday City Market will continue through Christmas Eve. The holiday market, which features 110 vendors mostly offering arts and crafts, will take place from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. today and Dec. 17 and from 8 a.m. to noon on Christmas Eve.